Another notable student of spiritual science, a Priest, writing in _Light_ of 21st October, 1882, after describing _The Perfect Way_ as "that most wonderful of all books which has appeared since the beginning of the Christian Era," said:--"It is a book that no student can be without if he will know _the truth_ on these matters. It furnishes us with a master-key to the phenomena which so perplex the minds of enquirers, and gives a system, the like of which has not been seen for eighteen centuries." The late Rev. John Manners, a man venerable of years and mature of spirit, and deeply versed in the sciences of both worlds, declared of these illuminations, "the Great I Am speaks in every line of them. Only the Logos Himself could be their source." Lady Caithness, already referred to, upon receiving a copy of _The Perfect Way_, wrote: "I have got another Bible, the _most complete_ Revelation, _certainly_, that has yet been given to man on this planet"[93]. And a Parsee scholar, a native of India, wrote: "_The Perfect Way_ has made me a much nobler man--a man of tranquility and calmness, due to the knowledge of the philosophy of Being imbibed by me from it, and for which my mind was fortunately prepared"[94]. * * * * * As stated in the preface, this present book is intended but as an epitome and instalment of the far larger book in course of preparation. For, as with the old Gospel of Manifestation, so with the New Gospel of Interpretation, the excusable hyperbole is no less appropriate to it,--"I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books which might be written." For the human soul is a theme as inexhaustible as it is paramount. And, as never in the world's history have the need and the desire for the knowledge of it been so urgent as they now are, so never in the world's history has there been a revelation of it comparable with that which has been vouchsafed in our day, and is contained in the narrative, the completion of which, and this alone, will enable me to "depart in peace," having no apprehension of after disquietude on the score of having left unaccomplished a portion so important of the task committed to me. THE END. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [81] The French edition, subsequently issued at Paris, is also due to her zeal and generosity. See p. 137, ante. [82] For the meaning of the "Four Rivers of Eden" see P. W., vi. par. 6. See note on p. 172, ante as to meaning of river Hiddekel. [83] This indictment is as true to-day as it was twelve years ago, when the above passage was written. S.H.H. [84] Cited from the preface to the second and succeeding editions of "The P. W." [85] Cited from "The Life of A.K." Vol. II. p. 155. [86] The Theosophist, May, 1882. [87] The term Theosophy is here used in its Pauline and ancient sense of the science of the realisation of man's potential divinity;--the process, that is, of the Christ.--1 Cor. ii. 7. E.M.